There are only two days left in the month of November and anything can happen in two days. But some preliminary numbers I am seeing show the level of violence is going to show another drop in November from the previous month, continuing a major downward trend from the January-February period this month. Getting consistent numbers is tough, but here is what the AP is reporting today:

648 Iraqi civilians have been killed or found dead in November to date, according to figures compiled by The Associated Press. This compares with 2,155 in May as the so-called “surge” of nearly 30,000 additional American troops gained momentum.
U.S. troop deaths in Iraq have also dropped sharply. So far this month, the military has reported 34 deaths, compared with 38 in October. In June, 101 U.S. soldiers died in Iraq.

The death toll for American troops in October fell to 39, the lowest level since March 2006, and the eighth-lowest total in 56 months of fighting, according to the Web site icasualties.org, which tracks military fatalities.

An unofficial Health Ministry tally showed that civilian deaths across Iraq rose last month compared with September, but the U.S. military found that such deaths fell from a high this year of about 2,800 in January to about 800 in October.

And that was with some pretty intense last gasps by al-Qaeda. At worst the US casualty numbers will be flat (though we continue to see days go by without casualties where before never a day went by without losses). I still expect to see these numbers drop for a couple of more months before leveling off. The Muslim Street in Iraq is fed up with the senseless killings and violence and is taking corrective action by turning in the extremists across the land. al-Qaeda is getting pushed out of the country and the Shiia Militia’s are being turned in and told to end their violence. Muslims have had enough of al-Qaeda’s senseless killings – and that goes all who try and follow in their footsteps.